Pune: Ajit Pawar enjoyed power for 32 of his 42 years in public life. According to political equations, he was the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra for a record 6 times. But the one post to which he had openly aspired – that of Chief Minister – eluded him till the end. His death in an air crash at the age of 66 has abruptly ended a career marked by resilience, controversy and an unrelenting drive for relevance at the highest levels of power.
He was the first in the Pawar dynasty to make an ideological shift to sharing power with the BJP, in the process breaking the party built by his uncle Sharad Pawar, and what was his brutality. The alliance with the BJP – with its increasingly radical Hindutva stance – has not always been a natural fit for him. But he was also a man driven by political pragmatism. Their brief, 90-hour alliance Devendra FadnavisAfter the fractured verdict of the 2019 assembly elections, it was an omen of events that would ultimately define Maharashtra politics.
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Ajit Pawar took his first steps into politics when he was elected and groomed to the board of a sugar factory in 1982. Sharad Pawar Becoming his political successor for years. It was from the uncle that the nephew learned the qualities of strong grassroots connections, a tireless work ethic and administrative efficiency so essential to political success. But unlike Sharad Pawar, he had no national ambitions in his mind. Mumbai-based political analyst Daniel Francis said, “His universe was Maharashtra – especially western Maharashtra – where he was formed in the womb of cooperative politics.” “Sugar factories, banks, irrigation boards and grassroots institutions shaped his political DNA,” Daniel wrote in a post on X.
Ajit Pawar’s political strength came from his deep understanding of grassroots level politics and agricultural economy. As the rapid urbanization of western Maharashtra changed the nature of the rural economy, he understood the concerns of rural voters and could also speak to their aspirations. They built networks, controlled resources, managed elections and had the ability to get their allies elected or even defeat rivals in their strongholds. Pimpri Chinchwad and Baramati are clear examples of how he combined development with tight political control, and transformed these areas in a way that even his political opponents were forced to accept. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray said, “In the 1990s, urbanization gained momentum in Maharashtra. Rural areas began to lean towards semi-urbanisation, yet the tone of politics there remained rural, even as the nature of their issues began to become urban to some extent. Ajit Pawar had a complete understanding of this kind of politics and had the skills to handle it efficiently.”
Pawar has weathered many storms in his career, including allegations related to ₹Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam in 2012 when he was Maharashtra Water Resources Minister and deputy to Prithviraj Chavan. Recently, he successfully quashed alleged illegalities surrounding his son Parth’s land deal in Mundwa, Pune. Despite continued criticism, he maintained control over both his party and key ministries, cementing his image as a political survivor.
He did this because of his tremendous capacity for hard work, his punctuality – often scheduling meetings at 6 in the morning – and his keen understanding of administrative complexities. The 8-time MLA from Baramati also served as the Finance Minister of Maharashtra for 13 years, and was scheduled to present his 12th state budget next month.
“I have seen very few leaders who are as disciplined as Ajit Pawar. In 2010, we played a leading role in running Maharashtra, when I was the chief minister and Ajit Pawar was my deputy chief minister for about four and a half years. We had some differences, but took many decisions in the interest of the people. Once he resigned after a controversy. But after a month, he returned to the cabinet because we managed to convince him. While he presented the state budget several times, Ajit Pawar was cooperative and He had many qualities to lead Maharashtra,” he said. Prithviraj Chavan.
Affectionately known as Dada – an honor he earned in the 1990s because of his approachability and easygoing manner with everyone – Pawar was known for his sharp wit as well as his blunt and sharp rhetoric. His comments during the drought and power crisis in 2013 had sparked outrage across the state. Speaking at a public meeting in Pune district, he had mocked farmers from drought-hit Solapur who were on hunger strike in Mumbai. Azad Maidan Demand for water liberation Pawar later apologized for his controversial remarks and even spent a day in penance at the Yashwantrao Chavan memorial in Karad.
step out of the shadows
However, the limits of his rise became apparent as early as 2004. In the assembly elections that year, the newly formed Nationalist Congress Party won more seats than its ally Congress. In terms of numbers, NCP had a clear claim on the post of Chief Minister. Ajit Pawar later said that this was the moment when he should have parted ways with his uncle Sharad Pawar. However, Sharad Pawar decided to allow the Congress to take the top post, citing multiple contenders within the NCP and broader alliance considerations. For Ajit Pawar, the decision was a missed opportunity that shaped the rest of his political career.
He once told a senior journalist in Mumbai, “If I have not become Chief Minister, it is because of my uncle, but it is equally true that whatever I am in politics is because of my uncle.” This complicated relationship began to deteriorate further when it became clear that Sharad Pawar was preferring his daughter Supriya as his successor rather than his nephew. The early-morning secret swearing-in with Fadnavis in 2019 was his first attempt at rebellion against his uncle, but which failed, paving the way for Ajit to see another of his comrades, Uddhav Thackeray, become the chief minister. By then he had worked as deputy to Prithviraj Chavan and Devendra Fadnavis.
The most important turning point in his career came in July 2023 when he finally broke ties with his uncle. It was symbolic of Ajit’s hold on his party that when he joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government, 40 of the 54 NCP MLAs decided to go with him, decisively stepping out of Sharad Pawar’s long shadow.
This gamble looked risky when his party managed to win only one seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and in which his wife Sunetra lost the prestige battle to her cousin in the Baramati seat. Supriya Sule. But months later, in the state assembly elections, Pawar made a comeback and took his faction in alliance with the BJP to 41 seats, while the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) could secure only 10 seats. The result strengthened his position within the ruling system and put to rest doubts about his political judgment.
Following the assembly elections, Pawar focused on strengthening his grip on state finances and planning, particularly as Maharashtra’s disastrous populist schemes resulted in the state’s budget deficit becoming its highest ever, leaving him in trouble. Despite being part of the alliance with the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, he has repeatedly said that his decision to join the alliance was driven by development priorities and not a deviation from his alleged progressive ideology. Even in political circles there was speculation about tensions within the government – especially over the balance of power between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde -Pawar largely stayed away from public fights, instead focusing on his ministries and the party organization.
In the coming days, attention is likely to turn to the question that Ajit Pawar could never fully resolve in his lifetime – will Maharashtra’s fractured Nationalist Congress Party remain divided, or is reunification possible without the man who spent his career straddling power and ambition.
Even when lack of internal confidence and coalition politics worked against him, Ajit Pawar’s hold on his constituency Baramati remained intact. In the 2024 assembly elections, Ajit Pawar emerged victorious by a margin of over one lakh votes, despite Sharad Pawar trying his best to defeat him from Baramati. The result confirmed his unmatched hold on the seat. He died on Wednesday morning when he was about to reach Baramati, causing a wave of mourning in the city. On Wednesday evening, Sharad Pawar, in tears, described Ajit Pawar’s death as an “irreparable loss for Maharashtra”.
